From your past personal experiences or recounts from fellow hunters, which area/country would you think has the reputation for buffalo with the meanest disposition and any particular episode that may have taken place which would be of interest to the forum?

Tourists gored, tossed into trees, buffalo doing tap dances on them. Yellowstone National Park.

Oh, sorry, wrong continent.

The wounded one who has his dandruff up and is looking for that guy who owes him money.

Mike

From my experience it has to be the dense thickets of Kitangare in Simanjiro GCA. The PHs in camp were all very nervous of hunting the Ninjas of Kitangare.

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Ninjas of Kitangare.

or Masailand in general.

Matetsi Zimbabwe

Yes a wounded buff in Kitangare validates Nyati turned into Mbogo. But the cows are even nastier unwounded.

I don't believe buffalo are meaner in any given area, at least as far as Zim is concerned. When they are not wounded they are like cattle and when they are wounded they are the toughest killing machines on Earth.
I have heard stories of uninjured dwarf buffalo being aggressive. Is this true? I wouldn't know as I have never come across one....

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Originally posted by David Hulme:
I don't believe buffalo are meaner in any given area, at least as far as Zim is concerned. When they are not wounded they are like cattle and when they are wounded they are the toughest killing machines on Earth.
I have heard stories of uninjured dwarf buffalo being aggressive. Is this true? I wouldn't know as I have never come across one....

In Masailand...the Masai keep them agitated all the time while there cattle are competing with them for grazing.

Yeah, come to think of it, maybe those Gonarezhou buffalo are a little more irritable than most, because of years of harassment.... Let me change my tune - unstressed and unwounded buffalo are like cattle.....

Although there cannot have been any buffalo more stressed than those I encountered in Gache Gache, and they were still like cattle....

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which area/country would you think has the reputation for buffalo with the meanest disposition

wherever Mark Sullivans film crew is.

IMO the Masailand buffalo are likely to rank at the top of the list for being the meanest from all the african hunting areas.
The main reasons being, as I see them: Having to share diminishing grazing grounds due to continuous deforestation to make way for subsistence farming with ever increasing maasai livestock, predators lying in wait at limited water sources at night and last but not least, the hunters who at first light are hard on their tracks.
I would furthermore be inclined to believe that due to the above factors, their psychological genes have been altered and as the saying goes: "Were born with a bug up their ass"!
To the best of my knowledge, I have not heard of any other area in africa that has registered the number of unsolicited charges, injuries and deaths of hunters or otherwise as in Masailand.
And yes, the Ninjas of the Kitiangare korongos do indeed have quite a reputation as several PHs who have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end will testify.

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And yes, the Ninjas of the Kitiangare korongos do indeed have quite a reputation as several PHs who have had the misfortune of being on the receiving end will testify.

Just ask Bloodnut!

Asiatic water buffalo - the real wild variety - at Kaziranga in Assam India. 6'4" at the shoulder & meaner than anything on earth. Charges / kills game wardens and poachers all the time. Also charges riding elephants and causes panic among tourists all the time. Tigers run for their lives when detected by them.

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Originally posted by Nakihunter:
Asiatic water buffalo - the real wild variety - at Kaziranga in Assam India. 6'4" at the shoulder & meaner than anything on earth. Charges / kills game wardens and poachers all the time. Also charges riding elephants and causes panic among tourists all the time. Tigers run for their lives when detected by them.

Now that would have been a challenge for MS! But from my understanding they are endangered and protected, are they not?

SableTrail,
What is the distinction between Mbogo and Nyati? I'v shot three of same, all looked about the same. I know that each is a name for buff in different languages, but is there a subtle difference?
Thanks.

The meanest buffalo is the one who's party you gate-crashed (or surprised at close range), probably irrelevant of where he/she is on the planet. I would guess that if they are carrying lead, wire snare or have recently been in a tangle with a lion pride they would probably be less happy to see you! I am sure that some are probably meaner in character than others, but am sure not too many people are that willing to put that theory to the test that often at close range in very thick bush!

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Originally posted by 505 gibbs:

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which area/country would you think has the reputation for buffalo with the meanest disposition

wherever Mark Sullivans film crew is.

Ba dum DUM! Nice one.

But you're wrong. Boston's Combat Zone circa 1978 at the corner of Tyler and Kneeland. Meanest damned buffs ever. Detroit distant second, as legend will have it...

Do bother looking for mean buffalo.

All the mean buffalo have been booked by Mark Sullivan.

Being a bunch of cowards, we are only allowed to get those that roll over and die as thet get shot.

The mean ones go those who say "...I love the confrontation. I seek it. I enjoy a fight to the death..."

Of course, it does help when you have a double barrel 600 and the poor sod of a buffalo half dead right in the open to be popped!

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Originally posted by Saeed:
Do bother looking for mean buffalo.

All the mean buffalo have been booked by Mark Sullivan.

Being a bunch of cowards, we are only allowed to get those that roll over and die as thet get shot.

The mean ones go those who say "...I love the confrontation. I seek it. I enjoy a fight to the death..."

Of course, it does help when you have a double barrel 600 and the poor sod of a buffalo half dead right in the open to be popped!

I love AR! Everyone is so opinionated-just like my house. We always know who likes libs, mouse guns or big bores, Mark Sullivan, ISS, or any other subject. Keep it up! And Saeed, happy holidays.

Brice: Yes the terms are used interchangeably, but from my experiences in Eastern Africa and Zambia, amongst the PH crowd and trackers there is a distinction. "Mbogo" refers to the meaner version of Nyati, The Black Death version of cape buffalo.

"Nyati" refers to the basic cape buffalo, but once "Nyati" gets wounded and runs off, he can turn into "Mbogo."

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"Nyati" refers to the basic cape buffalo, but once "Nyati" gets wounded and runs off, he can turn into "Mbogo."

but mayby true !

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Originally posted by SableTrail:
Brice: Yes the terms are used interchangeably, but from my experiences in Eastern Africa and Zambia, amongst the PH crowd and trackers there is a distinction. "Mbogo" refers to the meaner version of Nyati, The Black Death version of cape buffalo.

"Nyati" refers to the basic cape buffalo, but once "Nyati" gets wounded and runs off, he can turn into "Mbogo."

I just thought that mbogo was swahili for buff & nyati was shona or matabele for buff???

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Originally posted by ledvm:

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Originally posted by SableTrail:
Brice: Yes the terms are used interchangeably, but from my experiences in Eastern Africa and Zambia, amongst the PH crowd and trackers there is a distinction. "Mbogo" refers to the meaner version of Nyati, The Black Death version of cape buffalo.

"Nyati" refers to the basic cape buffalo, but once "Nyati" gets wounded and runs off, he can turn into "Mbogo."

I just thought that mbogo was swahili for buff & nyati was shona or matabele for buff???

That's it - nyati in Shona and inyati in Ndebele, no mbogo here in Zim, whether wounded or not...

the meanest buffalo is easily the one that has his horn up your butt and is going to kill you

On my one and only buff hunt in Zim (Chirisa) in very early May I shot my buff as he turned towards me at about 35 yards. The 375 solid did its job.(In honesty, it wasn't a one shot kill -but he was dead on his feet.Fact) So why was he so dangerous? The PH pointed out a thick "flood plain" area right beyond a small water hole that the buff was near and tried to get to (he splashed through the water hole and the PH told me to hold up on a shot because getting him out of the water would have been a real job for the truck winch if I dropped him then) after I hit him. He told me that it was called "vlei". I could well appreciate how a buff lying in ambush in such cover could make life very difficult for somebody following him into that cover. (The two Zulu trackers were practically ready to kiss me after the buff was down in open ground before the vlei. THe PH told me {I was the first hunter of the early season} that in the previous year, they had chased no fewer than 9 wounded buffs into such cover. (I have to boast - Later, I shot an impala for camp meat at a fair distance (maybe 80 yards) and one of the trackers said to the PH (in front of me) - "Shumba,him OK" -which the PH told me was his way of saying that he would hunt lion with me. I treasure that remark. As I said -I'm bragging. Africa was the grandest hunting experience of my life. (I used to hunt black bear in North America -and lost all interest in doing so afterwards. I had been in the major leagues -why should I play afterwards in the minors? I freely concede that grizzlies and brown bears are extremely dangerous and challenging to any hunter - I'm just saying that Africa changed my habits as a hunter. (Pure circumstances of life and nothing else prevented me from getting back to Africa again. I haunt this website because Africa made so much of a mark on me)

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Accuratereloading.com

I have had a charge in the Selous and in Mozambique by the Zambezi. However i believe the SOuth African buffalos are the meanest as they are fenced in and in alot of contact with humans.

Nyati is swahili name as well as Shona. Mbogo is actually the Kisakuma name for Buffalo. The Kisakuma tribe live in western Tanzania and this is where Mbogo originates from. Mbogo has nothing to do with a buff being wounded or not! At least this is my history of the name from growing up with the wasukuma. have never heard Mbogo used in any other country?

The Buffalo in Masailand are always harassed by the Masai so they are always in a bad mood.

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Nyati is swahili name as well as Shona. Mbogo is actually the Kisakuma name for Buffalo. The Kisakuma tribe live in western Tanzania and this is where Mbogo originates from. Mbogo has nothing to do with a buff being wounded or not! At least this is my history of the name from growing up with the wasukuma. have never heard Mbogo used in any other country?

Thank you for the clarification Adam!

Adam Clements

Thank you for an informative post. I was only in Africa once for buff (Zim) and learned the word nyati - I had always assumed that it was Zulu (because our two trackers were Zulu) (BTW, the PH taught me a number of words so that when I heard them - I would know that trouble was coming - nyati,mzou,mbadr. Any comments on those words? (I think I'm trying to spell them as I understood and heard them spelt by the PH at the time,so bear with me)

Adam Clements

I forgot to add "shumba" -which I understood immediately from its resemblance to "simba". (Sadly, I never saw lion except from tracks and hearing the territorial roar every night)

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Originally posted by Gerrypeters375:
Adam Clements

Thank you for an informative post. I was only in Africa once for buff (Zim) and learned the word nyati - I had always assumed that it was Zulu (because our two trackers were Zulu) (BTW, the PH taught me a number of words so that when I heard them - I would know that trouble was coming - nyati,mzou,mbadr. Any comments on those words? (I think I'm trying to spell them as I understood and heard them spelt by the PH at the time,so bear with me)

Gerry - In Zim, mbada or ingwe is leopard, nzou is elephant, lion is shumba or mhondoro...

David

Thanks for your post. Your slight variations in spelling I put down to my not quite hearing the PH correctly. Oddly enough, today, I can't remember the word for a croc -the most repulsive creature I ever saw in Africa -and which I feared greatly. (I was in Chirisa (Zim) in early May and was warned by the PH to stay at least 10 feet back from any waterhole -of which there were many of varying depths and dimensions - some big enough to support a croc in temporary residence) (I have a photo to this day of a croc estimated by the PH to be about 12 feet in length that I took of a waterhole -and I aimed the camera exactly at where the croc was - and I always challenge viewers to find the croc - I always regretted that I didn't shoot him as he laid in the weeds -but I had no license to do so -and I was very law abiding in those days! Anyway, thanks for the information.

Ha ha, glad you were law-abiding back then Gerry. Croc is ngwena or garwe. There are variations in words according to area. Shona actually has many different dialects, and then there's Ndebele, Tonga, Venda and more